Armored Company + Ard Boyz ≠ Fun
I’m not much of a “sky is falling” guy. I generally react positively when I hear outlandish rumors and I’m ALWAYS willing to give a new rule/codex/mission a spin before branding it “broken”. But I’m a little worried about the 2008 ‘Ard Boyz rules. No matter how I slice it, it’s going be an exercise in pushing player buttons.
Let me paint a picture:
1. Imperial Guard Armored Companies are allowed in the event.
2. Armored Company troop selections (including Leman Russ Battle Tanks) are going to be scoring.*
*At least in the Texas events (please check in your local area).
While you let this sink in, I’ll give you some background. As soon as the ‘Ard Boyz rules appeared online, we started making army lists — with the goal of creating something nasty (one of our favorite hobbies). Initially, we discounted Armored Company because of their lack of scoring units.
This, of course, led to the “why did they bother including Armored Company?” question and a particularly persistent Fly Lord decided to do the legwork to find an answer. So he tracked down the GW staff managing the event (at least in Texas) and found out that Amored Company troop selections were indeed scoring units.
As an Armored Company player (and I’ve never met anyone with a larger number of tanks), I know how frustrating Armored Company can be for my opponent. (It’s so frustrating that I typically only play the army in Apocalypse games and campaigns where my opponent knows what’s coming.)
As we speak there are only FIVE players — that I am aware of — in the Central Texas area that can field a 2500 point Armored Company (and I’m TWO of them). So this is great news for me, but bad news for a fun ‘Ard Boys tournament. And, although I should probably keep my trap shut and just destroy people at at the Texas events, I thought I would post something here to see if anyone else is worried about this.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on it! Is the sky really falling? Am I too worried about fun? Can your ‘Ard Boys army handle ELEVEN FAV14 tanks (and still have a chance of beating a horde or balanced army)? If you knew one was playing at your store would you be more or less likely to attend?
